A new group of Navy officials convened to find out: Where’s the LCS headed?

MOBILE, Alabama -- As Austal USA prepared to christen the third littoral combat ship last week, a group of U.S. Navy officials gathered in Washington to determine how to make the ship better. No option is off the table.

The program has been under increased scrutiny lately, while the U.S. Department of Defense hammers out its 2016 budget so that it reflects future needs.

The Navy’s littoral combat ships -- built by Austal and Lockheed Martin -- are supposed to play a big part, which has many uneasy about the scope of its abilities. The vessel was designed to operate closer to shore, hunting mines and tracking submarines.

Its three mission modules, created around a plug-and-play concept, allow the ships to take on equipment to perform different operations. It’s also armed with a 57 mm gun. Yet many are concerned it’s not enough.

Whatever that may look like, the new task force was formed to find a solution. They have until March 31 to submit their first report, said Rear Adm. Thomas Rowden. By the end of July a new plan will have come together.

“The big picture here is that we want to move thoughtfully, but aggressively to determine how to appropriately address the requirements that we have in order to be able to influence the budget that we are currently building, which is for 2016,” Rowden said.

Now that there is some water under the keel of the first four littoral combat ships, the group will compare it head-to-head with an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate, according the memo.

“There are some lexicon issues associated trying to do a straight up side-by-side comparison of the guided missile destroyer and the littoral combat ship,” Rowden said. That’s mainly because the capabilities were documented differently for the Perrys, many of which are being decommissioned and moved to other countries. “We don’t have documents to go back to and say, ‘How do we marry these babies up’ ”

Defense industry experts are still doubtful about the matchup.

The Perry, which is one of the smaller frigates, is “an apples to oranges comparison,” said James Hasik, senior fellow at the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security in Washington.

The Independence-class of the littoral combat ship has a large flight deck, and moves much faster at more than 40 knots. But the Perrys had better anti-aircraft missiles, a sore point for the LCS, Hasik said.

Update: This post has been updated to clarify that Oliver Perry Class vessels had better anti-aircraft missiles.